People
Staff
Administration & Finance
Patron Services Office
Development
Learning & Engagement
Marketing & Communications
Production / Programming
Choral Union
For questions about your ticket order, or general inquiries: ums-information@umich.edu
For information about group discounts: umsgroupsales@umich.edu
For questions about youth performances and other K-12 programs: umsyouth@umich.edu
For questions about ushering at UMS performances: fohums@umich.edu
For questions about making a gift to UMS: umsgiving@umich.edu
To request a UMS ticket donation for an upcoming community auction or event, please fill out our online request form: https://ums.requestitem.com/
Board of Directors
Rachel Bendit, Chair
Brian Willen, Vice Chair
Christina Kim, Secretary
Rob VanRenterghem, Treasurer
Karen Bantel
Kiana Barfield
Marco Bruzzano
Karen Chapell
Christopher Conlin
Timothy Damschroder
Alec Gallimore
Linda Gregerson
Neil C. Hawkins
Ibrahim Jarjoura
Barbara Kaye
Timothy G. Lynch
Preeti N. Malani
Chrislan Fuller Manuel
Timothy G. Marshall
Michael C. Martin
Mariam C. Noland
Peter Schweitzer
Versell Smith, Jr.
Gail Ferguson Stout
Louise Taylor
Alicia Torres
David Wilhoit
Ex-officio Members:
Geoffrey Chatas, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, U-M
David Gier, Dean, School of Music, Theatre & Dance, U-M
Laurie McCauley, Provost, U-M
Santa J. Ono, President, U-M
Tim Petersen, Past Chair of UMS Board of Directors
Jeanice Kerr Swift, Superintendent, Ann Arbor Public Schools
Representatives to the Board:
Norman G. Herbert, UMS Sustaining Directors
Cathy King, UMS Ambassadors
Beth McNally, UMS Ambassadors
Prudence Rosenthal, UMS Sustaining Directors
Ambassadors
If you are passionate about the arts and would like to connect deeply with UMS, Ambassadors may be a great match for you.
Over 35 members of the UMS Ambassadors work to increase awareness of and participation in UMS programs through assisting UMS staff with projects and special events, ushering at UMS school-day performances, hosting unique community events, helping to creating partnerships with various U-M and community groups, and providing support to UMS in countless other ways. UMS Ambassadors are the champions of UMS’s community engagement mission.
Ambassador Executive Committee
Cathy King and Beth McNally, Co-Chairs
Lisa Armstrong, Secretary/Treasurer
Jay Kain and Janet Torno, Membership Committee Co-Chairs
Kirsten Williams, School Day Performance Volunteer Chair
Elena Snyder, Ambassadors-on-Request Chair
Ambassador General Membership
Lisa Armstrong
Arlene Barnes
Astrid Beck
Sue Beel
Todd Beel
Elaine Bennett
Joan Kadis
Jaye Kain
Nancy Karp
Kathy Kiehl
Cathy King
Leah Korth
Michael Lee
Garrett Lefkowitz
Rita Malone
Daria Massimilla
Beth McNally
Athena Papageorgiou
Sharon Petersen-Dort
Pat Rideout
Jill Ross
Ellen Sapper
Elena Snyder
Kirsten Williams
Sustaining Directors
Norman G. Herbert, Co-Chair
Prudence Rosenthal, Co-Chair
Wadad Abed
Michael C. Allemang
Kathleen Benton
Maurice S. Binkow
Dan Braga
Sarah Calderini
David Canter
Mark Clague
Martha Darling
Julia Donovan Darlow
Monique Deschaine
David Featherman
Barbara Fleischman
Stephen Forrest
Maxine J. Frankel
Patricia M. Garcia
Beverley B. Geltner
Christopher Genteel
Anne Glendon
Katherine Goldberg
Richard Gutow
Walter L. Harrison
Debbie S. Herbert
Carl W. Herstein
David Herzig
Peter N. Heydon
Joel Howell
Timothy B. Johnson
Thomas C. Kinnear
Marvin Krislov
Earl Lewis
Robert C. Macek
Joetta Mial
Donald Morelock
Agnes Moy-Sarns
Jan Barney Newman
Roger Newton
Len Niehoff
Gilbert S. Omenn
Joe E. O’Neal
Stephen Palms
David Parsigian
Philip Power
Douglas Rothwell
Sharon Rothwell
Judy Dow Rumelhart
Maya Savarino
Ann Schriber
Ed Schulak
John J.H. Schwarz
Erik H. Serr
Ellie Serras
Joseph A. Sesi
George I. Shirley
Knut Simonsen
Cheryl Soper
Peter Sparling
James C. Stanley
Nancy Stanley
Victor J. Strecher
Karen Jones Stutz
Edward D. Surovell
Susan B. Ullrich
Eileen Lappin Weiser
Contact Info
734-647-1174
mvanb@umich.edu
Matthew VanBesien has served as the president of the University Musical Society since 2017, becoming only the seventh president in UMS’s 144-year history. Before his role in Michigan, Matthew served as Executive Director and then President of the New York Philharmonic from 2012-2017. He served as Managing Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 2010-2012, following positions at the Houston Symphony as Executive Director/CEO, and General Manager, from 2002-2009.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. VanBesien earned a Bachelor of Music degree in French horn performance from Indiana University and was the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music. He serves as the Secretary and Treasurer on the Board of the International Society for the Performing Arts, and as an Executive Committee member of the University of Michigan’s Presidential Arts Initiative.
Contact Info
734-936-1459
carmenj@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-647-1172
jadamcz@umich.edu
About Jessica
Joined UMS in 2017
Favorite UMS Performance: Nederlands Dans Theater
Contact Info
734-615-6591
snaranjo@umich.edu
About Salina
Joined UMS in 2021
Favorite UMS Performance: Fiddler on the Roof
While I’m relatively new to UMS, I am so thrilled to be a part of this team! I have a passion for music and the arts and I can hardly wait for the coming season!
Contact Info
734-764-8443
johnp@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-615-9579
bakscott@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-647-1168
arenfo@umich.edu
About Anné
Joined UMS in 2014
Favorite past performance: Accordion Summit in November 2014
Contact Info
734-615-9398
nrenella@umich.edu
About Renella
Joined UMS in 2018 as a student, 2021 as a full-time staff member
Favorite UMS Performance: Teac Damsa in November 2019
Nina started as a student worker in the ticket office in 2018 and became a full-time staff member as the Front of House Coordinator in 2021 and has the privilege to work with UMS’s volunteer ushers at UMS’s performances!
Contact Info
734-615-0581
blkojima@umich.edu
About Bridget
Joined UMS in 2013 as a student in the Ticket Office, 2019 as a full-time staff member
Favorite UMS Performance: Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain in 2013
Bridget joined UMS as a student while getting a degree in Performing Arts Management from the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and returned as a full-time staff member in 2019.
Contact Info
734-647-4010
rpcla@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-763-3100
corrinha@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-764-2538
clnathan@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-764-2538
kimbem@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-647-0105
ryanedav@umich.edu
About Ryan
Joined UMS in 2019
Favorite UMS Performance: Vivaldi Recomposed and Swan Lake back to back
Contact Info
734-647-1176
sbozell@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-647-1178
marnreid@umich.edu
About Marnie
Joined UMS in 2003
Favorite UMS Performance: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Marnie grew up in Chicago and went to the College of Wooster in Ohio before moving to Ann Arbor in the fall of 1990. After 8 years at the Ann Arbor News, Marnie began her career in development at the University of Michigan. UMS is only the third unit Marnie has worked for in her almost 25-year career at Michigan. In Chicago, Marnie grew up on or near the stage and UMS is a perfect fit for her love of the arts, education, and the community.
Contact Info
734-647-1175
ralesko@umich.edu
About Rachelle
Joined UMS in 2007
Favorite UMS Performance: The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, National Theatre of Scotland
Rachelle is an Ann Arbor native and University of Michigan alumna. She began working at UMS as a temp in the Development Office right out of college and has now been at UMS for 15 years. As a student at UofM, she was a member of the Michigan Marching Band and she continues to fuel her love of the arts by playing trumpet in the Ann Arbor Concert Band, attending the Ann Arbor Summer Festival (run by her husband Mike Michelon) and looks forward to bringing their son Louis to UMS performances in the near future!
Contact Info
734-615-6592
lmmurray@umich.edu
About Lisa
Joined UMS in 1997
Favorite UMS Performance: Einstein on the Beach
Contact Info
734-647-8009
wmlsmith@umich.edu
About Will
Joined UMS in 2019
Favorite UMS Performance: Fiddler on the Roof
Will is a member of the UMS Development team. A native of Ann Arbor, he and his wife, Megann, are raising their two children here. An alum of Eastern Michigan University and Ann Arbor Huron High School, Will continues to serve as the Camp Director for the Huron High School annual marching band camp held each August at Interlochen. Will enjoys the outdoors, camping, vacations, cooking, and time with family and friends.
Contact Info
734-764-8489
jsedky@umich.edu
About Justine
Joined UMS in 2018
Favorite UMS Performance: Ali Chahrour’s Layl (Night)
Justine began her work with UMS in the Patron Services Office as a part-time student employee while pursuing a Master’s in Flute Performance at SMTD. Since graduating, Justine has taken her love for music (and chatting about it!) to her current role on UMS’s Development Team.
Contact Info
734-764-6179
cayenneh@umich.edu
About Cayenne
Joined UMS in 2020
Favorite UMS Performance: SW!NG OUT – Caleb Teicher
Cayenne Harris serves as Vice President of Education and Community Engagement at UMS, leading programming for faculty and students, K-12, community, and audience initiatives. Cayenne began at UMS in February 2020 after 8 years as Vice President of Lyric Unlimited, the education/community engagement arm of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and 12 years in ascending roles at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. A French horn player, Cayenne received music degrees in performance from San Francisco State University and Yale University. She was twice named one of NewCity Magazine’s 50 Outstanding Leaders of Chicago’s Theater, Dance, Opera, and Comedy Culture, has served as a speaker at numerous professional conferences on a range of topics, and is an active volunteer.
Contact Info
734-764-4805
adavism@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-615-0122
tepark@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-764-3903
mwildman@umich.edu
About Maddy
Joined UMS in 2019
Favorite UMS Performance: Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of American Popular Music: 1960’s-1980’s
Maddy Wildman is your friendly neighborhood trans lesbian. (there’s at least one in every neighborhood, like dandelions, or stray cats, or Applebee’s)
Throughout her short life, she has been nurtured by an incredible artistic community, challenging her to become more joyful, humble, vulnerable, and kind. She is forever indebted to all the friends that love her, and each day she strives to pay it forward in her art, her work, and her smile.
Maddy is also a bassoonist, composer, UMS University Programs Manager, virgo, cocktail enthusiast, amateur poet, molasses cookie expert, perhaps overly eager gardener, obsessed with a specific set of indie video games, bird lover, and proud cat mom.
She plays bassoon with Front Porch, slapslap, BRIGE, and other groups. You can listen to some of her music here.
Maddy is honored to work with UMS, with fond memories of performances ever since her first semester at U-M. She was born in Wyoming, raised in Spokane, Washington, graduated from the University of Michigan, and lives happily with her girlfriend in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Contact Info
734-763-0611
sarabill@umich.edu
About Sara
Joined UMS in 1988-93, and then again in 1996
Favorite UMS Performance: Too many to count! But the ones that always rise to the top are: Jessye Norman singing Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Celibidache conducting Munich Phil in Bruckner, Mariss Jansons conducting Shostakovich 7, Benjamin Grosvenor recital last year, Complicite’s The Elephant Vanishes, Nederlands Dans Theatre, Ballet Prelkocaj Snow White… and so many more!
Sara joined UMS in 1988 while a student at U-M, where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in English after a short-lived stint as an oboe performance major. Five years later, she moved to California, where she completed an MBA at Stanford with a focus on public management and worked for San Francisco Opera as a Financial Analyst.
Sara returned to Ann Arbor in 1996 to head up UMS’s Marketing & Communications department and now serves as Vice President, Marketing & Communications. She also teaches a class on DIY Marketing & Social Media at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
Contact Info
734-647-4020
lilymich@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-615-6590
ewoodham@umich.edu
About Eric
Joined UMS in 2018
Favorite UMS Performance: Max Richter’s Vivaldi Recomposed with Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (November 2019)
Eric Woodhams has led transformative digital projects for performing arts organizations, including the Aspen Music Festival and School, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, and UMS. Eric graduated from Indiana University with degrees in music and arts administration before fusing his passions for the arts, technology, and marketing into his career. When not attending concerts at UMS or in Detroit, Eric loves introducing visitors to the beauty of the Motor City, working out with Peloton, and spending time with his rescue dog, Achilles.
Contact Info
734-615-4284
jacobgib@umich.edu
About Jake
Joined UMS in 2016
Favorite UMS Performance: Eighth Blackbird and Third Coast Percussion – Music for 18 Musicians
Jake first joined UMS as a member of the UMS Student Committee during his freshman year at the University of Michigan. He went on to co-lead that committee and join the Marketing department as a student worker. In January 2020 he joined the UMS Staff and graduated that spring with a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PEE) and a minor in History of Art. In addition to his work with UMS, he is a researcher with the Virulent Hate Project.
Contact Info
734-764-9906
mjaco@umich.edu
About Mark
Joined UMS in 1998
Favorite UMS Performance: Falling Up and Getting Down season-opening community celebration at Ann Arbor Skatepark in 2016
Contact Info
734-615-4285
jryang@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-764-9187
aegrove@umich.edu
Contact Info
734-615-4077
mbroeder@umich.edu
About Mary
Joined UMS in 2006 as an intern, 2007 as a full-time staff member
Favorite UMS Performance: Igor and Moreno, Idiot-Syncrasy; National Theatre of Scotland, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, Ryoki Ikeda, Superposition, and like 10 more things
Contact Info
scottph@umich.edu
About Scott
Scott Hanoian is the music director and conductor of the UMS Choral Union where he conducts and prepares the Grammy Award-winning chorus in performances with the world’s finest orchestras and conductors. Choruses prepared by Mr. Hanoian have sung under the batons of Leonard Slatkin, Iván Fischer, Osmo Vänskä, Peter Oundjian, Fabien Gabel, and Arie Lipsky.
Mr. Hanoian is active as an organist, accompanist, continuo artist, conductor, choral adjudicator, and guest clinician. He is the director of music and organist at Christ Church Grosse Pointe, where he directs the church’s four choirs and oversees the yearly concert series. Mr. Hanoian has served on the faculty of Wayne State University and Oakland University and was the artistic director and conductor of the Oakland Choral Society from 2013–15.
As an organist and conductor, Mr. Hanoian has performed concerts throughout the US and has led choirs on trips to Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, France, and Spain. In the summer of 2017, Mr. Hanoian led the Christ Church Schola during their weeklong residency at Westminster Abbey.
Before moving to Grosse Pointe, Mr. Hanoian was the assistant organist and assistant director of music at Washington National Cathedral where he played the organ for many services including the funerals for Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. Mr. Hanoian has recorded the complete organ works of Johannes Brahms for the JAV label.
Contact Info
734-763-8997
kio@umich.edu
Love great music, theater, and dance?
Surely your inbox has room for one more email... Sign up for notifications on new digital and live performances, plus season updates.